WorkFlow: Some trends in business law

Labor and employment attorney Robert A. Boonin, a shareholder at Butzel Long in Ann Arbor, recently was named president of the Litigation Counsel of America. He recently offered Business Review readers insights into trends in work place-related law.

What labor trends do we face both as a nation and in Michigan?
Nationally we're seeing more awareness of employee rights under certain laws. Areas where we have to give help are complying with the Fair Labor Standards Act and complying with overtime rules, making sure people you are treating as exempt are truly exempt and making sure you are compensating people for all the time they are working.
There are also changes coming up dealing with union rights. The unions are trying to have laws modified to make it easier for them to organize. Even though they win over half of the elections that are held, the size of the representative workforce is a fraction of what it used to be.

What trends do you see in employment discrimination?
The areas that are the most active are Americans with Disabilities Act discrimination - the difficulty in identifying who is entitled to accommodations and which are necessary. Right now, under federal law, you look at a person in their mitigated circumstance: You take into account things such as wearing glasses, and that can even extend to artificial limbs and so on. Congress is considering a bill that would say you look at the individual in their unmitigated condition to determine if they are entitled to accommodation.

What's new with collective bargaining and unions?
Many employers are able to partner a little better with the unions than they were 10 years ago. There are some difficult issues out there, with the prominent one being health care. It's now realized to be a mutual problem.

What are the biggest challenges in the workplace?
The challenge is dealing with health care costs and retirement costs. In the teaching sector, for instance, part of the (state) budget package dealt with what to do to make it easier for school districts to control their health costs. There was a lot of talk about changing the way teacher retirement is designed.

Any free advice to employers?
Don't skimp on preventative work and training. If you can make decisions that don't trigger litigation, you'll be much more able to protect the bottom line.